The underlying principles to the bill are found in Section 28 of the Constitution which states, inter alia, that "A child's best interests are of paramount importance in every matter concerning the child", and more specifically, that children should only be detained as a measure of last resort and then apart from prisoners older than 18.

The Child Justice Bill provides the legislative framework for special protection of children who have come into conflict with the law.

The bill also gives effect to the requirement that South Africa's accession to the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child and the African Charter on the Rights and Welfare of the Child must be taken up in our domestic law.

Madame Speaker,

The bill has been in the making for more than ten years with the first steps taken as far back as May 1997, and although it has taken a long time, the IFP shared the view of a leading criminologist who said "it is better to have a bill, than no bill at all".

The main objective of the bill is to provide alternatives to the incarceration of children who committed less serious criminal offences. The bill sets the age of 10 as the minimum age for prosecution, while retaining the common law presumption of incapacity for children under the age of 14.

Some of the alternative sentences envisaged by the bill include:

According to the Child Justice Alliance, diversion is the "practise of referring a child away from formal court procedures at any stage in the criminal justice process." It is not a soft option, but seeks to change the child's pattern of behaviour so that he or she understands the impact of their crime on the community.

Restorative justice is not a new concept in South Africa, and can be described as uniquely African as it encapsulates some of the principles of Ubuntu. These include actions such as an apology, restitution and reparation. Overall, the main objective of restorative justice is to allow the offender to rejoin the community and to prevent them from re-offending.